Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee.
Before I begin my presentation, I would like to express my frustration at the late invitation, three days prior, to appear before this committee. We are a small organization with limited resources and a very full agenda. Taking the time to prepare for and attend the session on such short notice presents significant challenges and does make us wonder if the link to gender-based violence against women is simply an afterthought for the committee.
Women’s Shelters Canada is a national, non-profit organization representing 15 provincial shelter associations and over 600 violence against women shelters and transition houses across the country. Bill C-21 is an important bill for those of us concerned with gender-based violence. Having said that, we do have some concerns and suggestions as to how the bill could be strengthened.
Guns are used to terrorize, injure and kill women and their children in urban as well as rural settlings. We know that the risks are higher in rural communities where there are more guns, more opposition to gun control and fewer supports for women living with violence.
According to the Canadian Femicide Observatory, there was a 26% increase in the killings of women and girls from 2019 to 2021. In 2021, 173 women and girls were violently killed. When known, 38% of these murders were with a firearm. As a result of these killings, 164 children were left without a mother. The 2021 report made it abundantly clear that, proportionate to their population size, small, rural and remote communities bear a larger burden of femicides than urban ones.
Firearms cause harm to women in ways other than by death and injury. In our annual “Shelter Voices” survey, we ask shelters to report on a specific 24-hour period. One of the questions is this: To your knowledge, how many women currently residing at the shelter have been threatened by a gun? Since the survey began, the average number of shelters that have responded is 230, and the average number of women staying at the shelter on that day who had been threatened by a gun is 100. The link between guns and violence against women is clear, as is the link between guns and the instance of lethality for victims of domestic violence.
It is my understanding that the bill will revoke an individual’s licence if they have engaged in an act of domestic violence, stalking or become subject to a protection order. In order to maximize the potential benefits of this, we feel that there are several concerns that need to be addressed.
We feel it is necessary to define domestic and family violence within the bill. Our suggestion is to refer to the definition of family violence recently adopted in the Divorce Act.
We have concerns in terms of the time it may take between when it is deemed that the firearm must be removed and when this happens. It has been documented numerous times that women are at the highest levels of danger of lethality when they make it known to their abuser that they are leaving the situation.
The bill authorizes the issuance, in certain circumstances, of a conditional licence for the purposes of sustenance or employment. We strongly feel that the employment exemption must be removed. One example here is the case of police officers. Although there is limited research in Canada, research done in the United States suggests that officers are more likely to abuse their domestic partners than the general public. In Nova Scotia alone, 14 police officers from across the province have been charged with crimes connected to domestic violence since 2012.
In closing, I would like to stress the importance of the need to improve the processes associated with screening gun owners and removing firearms from people who are at risk to themselves or others.
The federal government uses its powers to make decisions about who can have firearm licences. Despite the fact that several measures were introduced to help ensure this power, multiple inquests and inquiries have shown that this is not being done. We strongly recommend ensuring that there is strong language reinforcing this responsibility. The need for greater resources, commitments and accountability measures will be key in the successful implementation of this bill.
Women's Shelters Canada has been advocating for a national action plan on gender-based violence for over a decade. Key to our call for a national action plan is the need for consistency across and within jurisdictions in policies and legislation that address gender-based violence against women. It will be important that this be an integral part of the implementation of this bill.
Finally, as a member of the Coalition for Gun Control and as a signatory to the brief submitted by the National Association of Women and the Law, we would like to publicly state that we are in agreement with both of their detailed recommendations.
Thank you very much.